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NASA’s NICER Continues Science Operations Post Repair

NASA crew aboard the International Space Station installed patches to the agency’s NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer) mission during a spacewalk on Jan. 16. NICER, an X-ray telescope perched near the station’s starboard solar array, resumed science operations later the same day. The patches cover areas of NICER’s thermal...

Dover Adds Cryogenic Pumps to Its Pumps & Process Solutions Segment

Dover announced that it has acquired Cryogenic Machinery Corp. (“Cryo-Mach”). The acquisition will become part of the PSG business within Dover’s Pumps & Process Solutions segment, expanding Dover’s presence in the cryogenic end market. Headquartered in North Hollywood, California, Cryo-Mach is a specialized designer and manufacturer of mission-critical cryogenic centrifugal pumps,...

Cryogenic Upgrade Boosts Capacity by Almost 80%

With the rise in deep-space missions, more international requests, and increasingly intense data streams, the demand for deep-space ground stations has never been higher. Yet, the system is nearing full capacity. To alleviate the load on its three deep-space antennas within the global ground station network (Estrack), the European Space...

Cryoport Unveils HV3 Cryogenic Shipping System for Advanced Therapies

Temperature-controlled supply chain solutions specialist Cryoport has launched a new high-volume cryogenic shipping system. The Express® Cryogenic shipping system, HV3 for short, is designed to meet the needs of advanced therapies, keeping temperature stable at -150°C and is compliant with airline requirements to allow for air travel. The HV3 offers additional...

Demaco Unveils New Brand Identity as Part of OPW Clean Energy Solutions

Entering its 65th year of operation, Demaco Holland B.V., based in Noord-Scharwoude, The Netherlands, proudly announces the release of its new logo and brand identity. The refreshed branding signifies Demaco’s integration as a core member of OPW Clean Energy Solutions, a business unit of OPW, a Dover company, following its...

Advancing Hydrogen Innovation Through Collaboration and Breakthroughs

Over 150 research and industry experts gathered in London for a Cryogenic Hydrogen Research Conference delivered by the ATI’s Hydrogen Capability Network (HCN) in partnership with the Civil Aviation Authority this week. This inaugural HCN conference with a cryogenics focus brought together academics, students, and industry engineers working in the field...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Joule-Thomson Effect

The Joule-Thomson (JT) effect is a thermodynamic process that occurs when a fluid expands from high pressure to low pressure at constant enthalpy (an isenthalpic process). Such a process can be approximated in the real world by expanding a fluid from high pressure to low pressure across a valve. Under...

Current Leads

One of the challenges of using superconducting magnets is the connection of the magnet to a room temperature power supply. This is accomplished via current leads. The trick is that current leads should ideally have a low heat leak, since they connect room temperature to cryogenic temperature, while at the...

Multilayer Insulation

Multilayer insulation (also referred to as superinsulation) is a key component in the reduction of heat leak to cryogenic systems due to thermal radiation. MLI consists of a series of uncooled reflective surfaces placed in the vacuum space between two surfaces, one warmer than the other. Generally speaking, for ideal...

Latest in Cryo Central

Magnets

From “Superconductivity: Present and Future Applications” by the Coalition for the Commercial Application of Superconductors. Particle physics uses accelerators to recreate the conditions of the early universe in an attempt to piece together the complex puzzle of how we got to where we are today. These huge machines are used...

Energy Storage

From “Superconductivity: Present and Future Applications” by the Coalition for the Commercial Application of Superconductors. With power lines increasingly congested and prone to instability, strategic injection of brief bursts of real power can play a crucial role in maintaining grid reliability. Small-scale Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) systems, based on...

Astronomy

ASTRONOMY IN SPACE by Peter V. Mason, retired, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Visiting Associate, California Institute of Technology. Pmason@alumni.caltech.edu In thinking about the reasons to perform astronomy in space, we first consider the effect of the earth’s atmosphere. On a scale of decreasing energy, gamma rays, cosmic rays, X-rays and...

Cryocoolers

What is a Cryocooler? A mechanism that can extract heat from an object (cooler) and by doing so draw its temperature down below approximately 150 Kelvin (cryo). — (Courtesy Dr. Willy Gully) What is the difference between a Cryocooler and a Cryostat? A cryostat is any device designed to maintain...

Latest in Ask the Experts

An Issue of Pressure and Flow Rate in a Supply Tank

Please help solve this problem: A supply tank requires a vaporizer to generate sufficient pressure to pump stored fluid up into a vehicle or tank. The available head is limited as the tank level falls and it is important to minimize the system pressure drop to maintain the desired flow...

Using MLI on VJ Line Joints or Cryo Storage Tanks

When installing Multi Layer Insulation (MLI) blankets on VJ line joints or cryo storage tanks should they be wrapped and tied down tight or loose? These are usually pre-cut to size. Also should they have an access hole at the point of where the molecular sieve is installed to help...

Separated layers of ice over a pipe

I want to know that why there are different layers of ice over a pipe carrying a cryogenic fluid, each layer separated with clear marks / lines? What do these layers signify?

Using nitrogen as a cryogen

Is it possible to achieve -200˚C using nitrogen as a cryogen?

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